Police-Community Relations Programs
20 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2016
HERE HAVE BEEN A SERIES of incidents that have drawn national attention to con- troversial police actions. Transit police departments have been developing poli- cies, increasing training and
improving programs to build trust, boost oversight and em- brace community policing. And while there are many similarities between municipal policing and transit policing, there are signifi- cant unique factors transit police departments face.
“We are immersed with the people,” said Southeastern Penn- sylvania Transportation Author- ity Chief of Police Thomas J. Nes- tel III. “The unique thing about transit policing compared to municipal policing, most of our people are on foot with the cus- tomers, the riders, the citizens.
Our cops are interacting with the public face to face, every day.”
New Jersey Transit Chief of Police Christopher Trucillo also has experience in both arenas. “I’ve done municipal policing and I’ve done the bulk of my career in transit policing and the transit police officer deals with hundreds of people every day and that’s not an exaggera- tion.” He continued, “A transit cop goes out to a transit station and literally has a sea of people go by in a 10-hour day.”
Both chiefs said their officers have developed long-standing relationships with people be- cause they’re not in cars with the windows up like municipal police often are. The transit po- lice are at the stations, riding the buses and riding the trains with the people.
Trucillo said, “I always joke and say that a transit cop can’t be an observer. A transit cop has to be an outgoing person and someone comfortable with peo- ple because a transit cop every day, all day, is in front of people.
“We message to our police of- ficers and in our vision statement that everything we do has to be done with exceptional public service in mind. We understand that we police in an environment where people are paying to be there, to use our modes of trans- portation and that expectation of service is greater. We’ve got to deliver on that.”
The Transit Environment Transit police often deal with a larger quantity of people who are dealing with mental health issues, homelessness, and drug and substance abuse issues.
“One thing we know is that a lot of the folks with these types of social maladies congre- gate or navigate to and around
Public Perception: What Transit Police are doing to Boost Community Relations By Leah Harnack
T
MARTA’S “KIDS in Transit” is a one-week program that exposes kids to all facets of police work and gives them the chance to participate in police- instructed life skills courses.
The chiefs of police from transit police departments across the country share what they’re doing to build trust and open the lines of communication with their riders and the public.
MARTA
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 20 2/1/16 11:57 AM
FEBRUARY 2016 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 21
transportation facilities,” said Tru- cillo. “That’s one of the challenges that a transit cop anywhere in our nation, I believe, but certainly we here at New Jersey Transit face at all of our facilities.”
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Chief of Police Kenton W. Rainey said the partnership they have with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), has been a huge benefit to the department. The police department has a full-time licensed social worker that works with the officers in identifying
understanding and empathy on how to deal with people who are suffering from mental illness.”
The training also includes a de-escalation piece when it comes to use of force and training to pre- vent racial profiling.
Talking further about the use- of-force reporting system, Rainey said while there are a number of layers of approval, they also have a civilian oversight and a police auditor that monitors all of the use-of-force incidents and has the ability to investigate or order further investigation.
Rainey said, “What I look at is how many of those complaints are being reversed. When we don’t find anything, we don’t feel our officer has done anything wrong.
“I’m pleased with the direction that we’re going; the numbers have continuously gone down.”
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Chief of Police James D. Spiller explained a procedural jus- tice and police legitimacy course they implement. While it wasn’t their idea and a lot of cities do a program like it, he said the course is getting back to basic policing. “It’s listening to people, allowing them to explain, empathizing with them, and making a decision that’s fair and impartial and not going into it with some preconceived idea.
“What I always ask people is, ‘How would you like to be treated?’
“That gets the conversation started.”
Spiller teaches the course him- self because as he said, the mere fact that he’s doing it as the chief emphasizes the importance.
Public Engagement While transit officers are already out with the riders while doing their day-to-day job, every de- partment has a different type of program that gets various levels of the departments and different divisions out to meet with the pub- lic and get a conversation started.
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)
IT HAS been a standing tradition for the MARTA police department to work with the community and to enhance that, they’re continually looking for new initiatives.
METROPOLITAN ATLANTA Rapid Transit Authority Chief of Police Wanda Y. Dunham
BAY AREA Rapid Transit Chief of Police Kenton W. Rainey
SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA Transportation Authority Chief of Police Thomas J. Nestel III
NEW JERSEY Transit Chief of Police Christopher Trucillo
DALLAS AREA Rapid Transit Chief of Police James D. Spiller
MARTA
homeless individuals who are suffering from mental illness and connect them up with the var- ious programs available in the community.
Also extremely beneficial is the 40 hours of crisis interven- tion training the officers receive. “A lot of agencies will send their officers to 8 hours training, may- be 16,” explained Rainey. “About 95 percent of our officers, and not just the police officers, our civil- ian staff as well, have undergone this training so they have a better
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 21 2/3/16 8:17 AM
22 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2016
TRANSIT POLICE
Spiller said, “Quite often our bus operators will experience prob- lems with riders and they have a mechanism where they complete a bus operator report and it’s completed online. We review all of those reports, so if an operator points out a problem on a specif- ic route at a specific location, our officers will personally contact that operator and they will be at that bus stop, at that route and on that bus so that operator can point that person out and we can have a conversation with that individual.
He stressed, “It’s important that employees feel safe and se- cure, just like our customers.”
Citizens Police Academy One of the things a few of the
departments are doing is a citizens police academy. MARTA and NJ Transit both talked about how their respective citizens police academies operate.
MARTA has had a program for the past 20 years and last year
which are only a few questions. They will ask about security, about DART services, what the custom- ers would like to see, what the cus- tomers think could be done better.
“We will fill out that form for them,” Spiller said. “We did over 40 of those within the last 6 months whereby we’ve reached over 5,000 customers that have participated with the survey.”
The customer can then opt for a personal response by email or phone and that will come back by no less than a supervisor.
“Sometimes they get a call from myself or my deputy chief,” Spiller said.
Being visible on the trains and buses and at the stations is critical. “Eighty-five percent of our trains are manned by a police officer or a fare enforcement officer and they ride that train and stay with it all day,” said Spiller.
One thing he likes to highlight is how they work with the employ- ees, specifically the bus operators.
Chief of Police Wanda Y. Dunham talked about the program at MAR- TA that takes the command staff out to a station to have meetings with the customers. And as she stated, “It can be good, bad or ugly.”
They’re asking customers how they’re doing, what would the customers like to see, and sharing what MARTA police is doing to make the ride more pleasurable.
“Some say you’re doing a great job. Others say they want more officers and I say, ‘I do, too,’” Dunham laughed.
They do these meetings quar- terly to engage the public. To en- gage them weekly, the officers do Meet MARTA Police surveys on different lines.
“We see what our customers are saying; it doesn’t fall on deaf ears. We make necessary adjust- ments from what customers tell us,” said Dunham.
DARTing with the Chief is an ongoing program with the Dallas Police Department where Dallas Police Chief David Brown and his command staff go out on trains as part of a community engagement effort to build a positive relation- ship with the community. DART Chief Spiller said the Dallas Police Department had more than 120 of its personnel and DART police had more than 60 of its personnel. “We were riding the trains talking with passengers about crime and expec- tations and general communication about some of their concerns and some of their issues and explained to them processes and procedures and ease their perception of what they thought was crime.
“We’re getting out with the public, communicating with them in a friendly way whereby we’re in- forming them of what’s happening with DART and letting them know not everyone is in uniform, which they are receptive to.”
Another way in which they’re engaging the customers in a dia- logue is that they will go out and meet with customers and ask them to fill out brief customer surveys,
DART POLICE officers go through simulator training and evaluation once every two years.
DART POLICE Sergeant Donovon Collins aims at a suspect in the use-of-force simulator.
“It’s important that employees feel safe and secure, just like our customers.”
- JAMES Spiller
Lupe Hernandez/DART
Lupe Hernandez/DART
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 22 2/1/16 11:57 AM
FEBRUARY 2016 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 23
TRANSIT POLICE
combined it with a program that focuses on community emergency response. The program is a total of 14 weeks, with about 7 weeks focused on each area. Dunham ex- plained, “We put the two together because what we found was a lot of people that went through the citizens police academy wanted to serve and vice versa.”
For the first 10 years the depart- ment did two classes a year and the last 10 years since Dunham’s been chief, they’ve gone down to once a year. It’s a staff-intensive program to make it of value to those that go through it, and she said they want- ed to make sure they were getting the best bang for their buck.
Approximately 25 to 30 people go through the annual program.
Trucillo said the citizens police academy at NJ Transit has been in place for a number of years, some- time after 9/11. Unique to their
program, the class of 17 to 22 people is made up of 50 percent employees. They do a program twice a year.
Some of the highlights to those going through the program, he said, are a ride-along with a police officer in the field, a driving simula- tor, information on the counter-ter- rorism program and going through the virtual shooting simulator.
During the 11-week program, he said they talk about each of the divisions and departments within the police department and bring in an array of members to talk to the class about what they do.
“It’s well-received on both ends,” he stated. “While we like to produce a good product for those that give us their time, our folks also enjoying having an opportu- nity to kind of beat their chest and talk about what they’re doing.”
Those that go through the class are surveyed at the end and last
year they reached out to the alum- ni, to see if they would be inter- ested in volunteering. “We were really surprised at the number who said, ‘Yes, we would love to be involved,’” Trucillo said.
With an agency of more than 11,000 employees, there are a lot that may not know much about the police department. This program gives the department the opportu- nity to explain what they do. Tru- cillo said, “I think the employees, in some cases, are surprised to see how much the police department does within the New Jersey Tran- sit that may transcend what their beliefs about policing is.”
The most challenging part of a citizens police academy? Time.
Trucillo said, it’s a quid pro quo. It takes employee commit- ment to put on a good training program and the commitment of the people who elect to give up
OUR MAJOR PRODUCT RANGE
Toll Free: (800) 325-0296 Fax: (770) 458-5365 e-mail: sales@railquip.com www.Railquip.com 3731 Northcrest Road Suite 6 Atlanta, GA 30340
Quality engineered, state-of-the-art equipment:
Mobile and stationary car hoist system.
Body hoists and stands.
Spinning posts.
Truck hoists.
Turntables.
Drop tables.
Transfer tables.
Truck assembly and test stands.
Mobile / stationary waste removal systems.
Portable hydraulic rerailing equipment.
Plastic cable channels.
Portable car movers.
Toll Free: (800) 325-0296 Fax: (770) 458-5365 e-mail: sales@railquip.com www.Railquip.com 3731 Northcrest Road Suite 6 Atlanta, GA 30340
T RANNGE
Toll Free: (800) 325-0296 Fax: (770) 458-5365 e-mail: sales@railquip.com
R ilquip.c
TTTToToToooll Fll Fll Fll Frrrrerereeeeeee: (: (: (: (8: (8: (88800000000) 3) 3) 3) 322225555----0000222299996969666 FFFFaFaFaaaxaxaxxx: (: (: (: (7: (7: (77777770707000) ) ) ) 444454545558888----5555333366665555 eeee----mmmmaaaaiaiaiiillll: : : : ssssasasaaalllleeeesesesss@@@@rrrrararaaailquip.ilquip.ilquip.ilquip.ccccococooommmm
ilquip.cilquip.cilquip.cilquip.c
For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10065105
AS PART of MARTA’s “Blow the Whistle on Sexual Assault” campaign, they have handed out more than 7,000 whistles.
MARTA
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 23 2/1/16 11:57 AM
24 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2016
a certain number of hours each week to the agency that put on the citizens police academy. “The way we feel here,” he said, “people are kind enough to give us their time; we really have to give them something special in return and that’s what we try to do.”
Technology Deployed Utilizing some of the latest tech- nologies has enabled transit po- lice departments to improve their training, provide tools riders can access and protect both riders and officers.
DART and NJ Transit use training simulators that give offi- cers first-hand experience.
NJ Transit’s Trucillo said their officers go through a virtu- al 360-degree shooting simulator and driving simulator. DART’s Spiller said his officers go through TI Training Corp.’s The Training
Lab use-of-force and firearms theater-style simulator.
Spiller said the simulator is transit-focused and officers are put in a scenario where they may be confronted by an individual with a knife who is acting erratically. “You have to go through the pro- cedures of de-escalating the sit- uation that you’re in.” That may involve the use of force, whether it’s with a baton, pepper spray and eventually maybe the use of a weapon.
“We use it for critical deci- sion-making,” Spiller said.
It’s very realistic, complete with the sound of guns firing. Other staff has also gone through the simula- tor, including members of DART’s communication staff and attorneys.
“What we’ve learned by staff … going through it,” Spiller explained, “They would ask questions of us and we could explain our actions
to them. More importantly, they would have to explain their actions to themselves, which helped us in the long run, and it helped all of us get a better understanding of what an officer confronts and has to deal with on a daily basis.
Many departments are us- ing or testing body cameras on officers. Officers are required to turn on the camera any time they make any type of enforcement contact and record the incident from start to finish.
As of this interview, DART po- lice were testing body cameras and
VIRUSES BED BUGS LICE BACTERIA DUST MITES ROACHES FLEAS ODORS TICKS GERMS MILDEW
FUNGUS CENTIPEDES FIREBRATS SALMONELLA ENTERICA PSEUDOMONAS
AERUGINOSA PENICILLIUM VARIABILE STAPHLOCOCCUS AUREUS
TRICHOPHYTON MENTAGROPHYTES (INTERDIGITALE) HERPES SIMPLEX
VACCINIA VIRUS ASPERGILLUS NIGER
PROBLEM?
Solved!
For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10064948 For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10719358
MARTA HAS had a canine unit as part of its transit police force since 1997.
MARTA
TRANSIT POLICE
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 24 2/3/16 8:31 AM
FEBRUARY 2016 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 25
were expecting to start the procure- ment process within about a month. NJ Transit had just completed a pi- lot program with Taser Internation- al body cameras and were looking to outfit officers in the first quarter of 2016 with body cameras.
BART’s Rainey said it protects the citizens and officers as far as pre- serving the evidence about what re- ally happened if there is a complaint.
“We’ve been in the camera business a little over three years,” he said. They use Axon Taser Flex body cameras.
“The officers were a little reluc- tant but they definitely have come around because it really goes a long way to ensure transparency.
The Impact of Social Media Rainey said the biggest challenge they face is that everybody is so interconnected. “When something happens in Oakland, or San Fran- cisco, or even across the country, people want to come back to BART because of that original high-pro- file event in 2009, Oscar Grant.
“We have to remind everybody, yeah, we did have that incident. But we’re totally a different agency. If you look at the stuff that was rec- ommended in the president’s 21st Century Policing Task Force report, many of those recommendations we are either doing or have done.”
And some are using that kind of technology to their favor.
Nestel came to SEPTA in Au- gust of 2012 and he was already using Twitter.
“It does make the media relations folks, the CEOs, executive staff, it makes them nervous,” he said.
“Look, I’m exposing myself and by exposing myself, I’m exposing my organization. One unintended blip could be a devastating disaster.”
He emphasized, “In order to have success, you have to take risk.
“It’s calculated risk and it’s rea- sonable risk, but it is risk.”
Nestel said the focus of his tweeting is to market the prod- ucts and to let people know about
the great work the transit police is doing on the system.
Measuring the return on invest- ment of social media can be com- plicated. However, SEPTA does a robust customer survey every cou- ple years and the last survey saw a dramatic increase in customer sat- isfaction with safety and security.
It’s not only built a relationship with the riders, it’s built a relation- ship with the media.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said Nestel. “Look, if I don’t tweet about it, it’s not a story.
“Sometimes I’m tweeting about things just because I want people to know that I’m transparent. I put the good with the bad.”
Nestel referenced a recent ex- ample where he tweeted about the arrest of one of their own officers. He said, “The media would have never known about that had I not tweeted about it.”
Busch gave the media relations’ perspective. While they were nervous, it’s been tremendous in terms of increasing SEPTA’s profile, he said. “It certainly has helped our credibility. We’re very much transparent.”
“You have to talk about the bad with the good,” Nestel said. “To be credible, sometimes you have to talk about the bad, too. And, you just can’t be a rosy, always-present person when good stuff is going on and then disappear when the bad stuff occurs.”
As he explained, “It gives a great opportunity for me to give, in 140 characters, a short expla- nation or a short statement or a short expression of disappoint- ment. I think it personalizes policing for me. It sounds like a cute, catchy idea but it is very risky. However, the rewards can be overwhelming.”
TRANSIT POLICE
More online Read more about DART’s training simulator, from DART Digital Media Specialist Travis Hudson at www. MassTransitmag. com/12159204
Read about MARTA’s Blow the Whistle on Sexual Assault campaign at www. MassTransitmag. com/12162016.
#thinktransit
Make Transit a Choice
For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10065785
mass_20-25_0216Police.indd 25 2/1/16 11:58 AM
Copyright of Mass Transit is the property of Cygnus Business Media and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.